Sunday, November 30, 2008

Whither "Scranton Joe?"

Obama’s National Security “Triumvirate” has Relegated Joe Biden to Nothing More than a Constitutionally Mandated Sycophant, a “Yes Man” whose Opinions will likely be Disregarded

Posted by: James Richardson

Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 01:28AM CST

Was Joe Biden’s nomination for Vice President – a pick elicited first by the criticisms of Hillary Clinton, then John McCain, for Barack Obama’s relative foreign policy inexperience – a shallow attempt to dispel the disparaging ‘naiveté’ narrative? Will Vice President Cheney, a man who has expanded the powers of the Office of the Vice President more than any VP in recent memory, be succeeded by a wall moth? Survey says: Yes.

In all but confirmed leaks, Obama is set to name his national security team – Gates, Clinton, Jones – on Monday. Obama’s highly anticipated announcement, notwithstanding any surprises, stands to seal the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman’s proverbial foreign policy coffin, and not a moment too soon, I might add (see: This whole ‘time table’ thing is boring me. Let’s partition Iraq!).

President-elect Barack Obama planned to nominate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state on Monday, transforming a once-bitter political rivalry into a high-level strategic and diplomatic partnership.

Obama will name the New York senator to his national security team at a news conference in Chicago, a person close to Clinton confirmed to FOX News.

Democratic officials said Saturday. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the transition team.

To clear the way for his wife to take the job, former President Bill Clinton agreed to disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation since its inception in 1997. He'll also refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference, and will cease holding CGI meetings overseas.

Bill Clinton's business deals and global charitable endeavors were expected to create problems for the former first lady's nomination. But in negotiations with the Obama transition team, the former president agreed to several measures designed to bring transparency to his post-presidential work.

The Clinton pick was an extraordinary gesture of goodwill after a year in which the two rivals competed for the Democratic nomination in a long, bitter primary battle.

The two clashed repeatedly on foreign affairs during the 50-state contest, with Obama criticizing Clinton for her vote to authorize the Iraq war and Clinton saying that Obama lacked the experience to be president. She also chided him for saying he would meet with leaders of rogue nations like Iran and Cuba without preconditions.

The bitterness began melting away in June after Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama. She went on to campaign for him in his general election contest against Republican Sen. John McCain.

Advisers said Obama had for several months envisioned Clinton as his top diplomat, and he invited her to Chicago to discuss the job just a week after the Nov. 4 election. The two met privately Nov. 13 in Obama's downtown transition office.

Clinton was said to be interested and then to waver, concerned about relinquishing her Senate seat and the political independence it conferred. Those concerns were largely ameliorated after Obama assured her she would be able to choose a staff and have direct access to him, advisers said.

Remaining in the Senate also may not have been an attractive choice for Clinton. Despite her political celebrity, she is a relatively junior senator without prospects for a leadership position or committee chairmanship anytime soon.

Some Democrats and government insiders have questioned whether Clinton is too independent and politically ambitious to serve Obama as secretary of state. But a senior Obama adviser has said the president-elect had been enthusiastic about naming Clinton to the position from the start, believing she would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations and the advantages to her serving far outweigh potential downsides.

The TrekMedic ponders:Experience? Who needs experience when you just hire every Clinton re-tread from those mistake-ridden 8 years to prop up your persona?

Saturday, November 22, 2008

And So It Begins,..

I normally don't comment much about television shows or the state of what passes for entertainment these days. For what I care, Hollywood is a leftist, festering swamp that infects our very intellect.

However, I was kinda surprised and saddened to hear that one of the few shows I actually watch, Eli Stone, has been canceled.

For those who didn't watch the show, Eli Stone was about a high-powered lawyer who began to have visions about cases involving the greater good, rather than the bottom line. At the end of last season Eli, tired of the strain, had the vision-causing aneurysm removed. This season started with Signourney Weaver indirectly playing a God-like character who persuades Eli to take on the aneurysm (cross?) again to complete his divinely-appointed task.

Wait?? God directing man to do good for mankind? Hmmm,...Sounds a bit like "Joan of Arcadia," another divinely-inspired show that lasted just long enough to catch people's attention before being canceled.

But how long did "Sex and the (Secular) City" hang around to annoy us?

On the subject of annoying entertainers, can we arrest for child abuse lip-synching "singer" Ashlee Simpson and her "beard" bassist Pete Wentz for naming their newborn "Bronx Mowgli Wentz?"

Friday, November 21, 2008

Goode Job, Wilson!

Ronald Donatucci, the register of wills, was the first city elected official yesterday to take a cue from Mayor Nutter and cut his $112,233 annual salary by 5 percent.It's unclear how many other elected officials will follow suit. In interviews, most said they had not yet made that decision or settled on a precise amount.

"I think it would be very demoralizing if I need to cut employees or something and I don't give anything up," said Donatucci. "I think the mayor set the right example."

Nutter announced an array of grim budget cuts Thursday, from pool and library closures to a freeze in tax relief.

Nutter volunteered to give back 10 percent of his $186,044 salary - as did Chief of Staff Clay Armbrister, who is paid $198,500 - and demanded that his cabinet take at least 5 percent cuts. He also required all exempt employees to take five days of unpaid leave this year and next.

City Council President Anna C. Verna, through a spokesman, said Council would trim its budget 10 percent without cutting salaries. Donatucci said his total cuts were expected to be 6 or 7 percent.

"The City Council agreed to take a 10 percent cut, and we can do it without impacting elected officials' salaries," Verna said.

It's not clear whether Council members will follow Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr., who cut his staff salaries 5 percent. He has not yet decided about his paycheck.

So far, two other council members have formally notified Verna's office they will also take 5 percent pay cuts. Councilmen James Kenney and Frank DiCicco will give up $5,611 of their $112,233 salaries.

There are 17 representatives on City Council. Each member makes at least $112,233 and has access to a city-funded car. The Council President's office says only four council members currently do not use city cars: Kenney, DiCicco, Wilson Goode, Jr. and Bill Green.

It was Councilman DiCicco who first raised questions about city council's cost-saving measures Wednesday. He criticized Councilman Frank Rizzo for using a city car while asking all of his colleagues to cut $12,000 out of their individual budgets. DiCicco wanted to pool that money to pay for a study of Mayor Nutter's plan to close seven city fire companies.

DiCicco withdrew his request Thursday.

"There are some council members who don't have $12,000," DiCicco said. "They've exhausted – and they're entitled to exhaust – all their employee salary allotment."

As for taking a pay cut, DiCicco and Verna said that decision is up to each council member.

"I don't know what my other colleagues' expenses are at home. We all have different needs," DiCicco said.

"I think we should do what we can to help in this time," Councilwoman Donna Miller told CBS 3.

But Miller says she does not know if she will take a cut.

Councilman Wilson Goode, Jr. is not taking a pay cut but is cutting the salaries of his staff 5 percent.

Goode declined an on-camera comment.

The TrekMedic snarkily adds:City Hall rumors abound that Goode's aide, Latrice Walker, commented by drawing another grammatically-incorrect remark about how much of a skinflint her boss is.

Bad Ph***in' News, Phils!

Chase Utley tried fiercely to conceal the severity of his right-hip injury throughout the Phillies' championship season.It was not an issue, he maintained. Just normal bumps and bruises.

But the hip bothered him much more than he let on.

Utley, the Phillies' all-star second baseman, will undergo surgery next week in New York that will keep him from baseball activities for three months. A full recovery is expected to take four to six months.

The surgery is described as "an arthroscopic evaluation" that could treat "any labral [cartilage] or bony injury." In other words, it remains to be seen what exactly needs to be done.

Phillies officials sounded optimistic yesterday that Utley will be available to play most of the 2009 season, which begins April 5 against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park. They also were optimistic that Utley will be the same Utley, the one who famously plays with reckless abandon, when he returns.

"I don't look to change the way he plays," said Scott Sheridan, the Phillies' head athletic trainer. "That's certainly not the goal of surgery. The goal here is to promote his health for the long term.

Good Lord! When Will it Stop??

A Philadelphia police officer died last night following a dramatic two-vehicle crash - involving a suspected drunk driver - in the city's Port Richmond section.

Sgt. Timothy Simpson, a 20-year veteran, is the fourth member of the force to die on the job this year.

Simpson died at Temple University Hospital, where he had been rushed in critical condition following the 10:30 p.m. collision at Aramingo and Allegheny Avenues.

Police early this morning said the officer was responding to a robbery report when his vehicle collided with a car driven by a suspected drunk driver.

The collision was so violent that it thrust the cruiser into the wall of a nearby building and slammed the other car into a light stand.

The two vehicles were demolished, and it took furious efforts by rescuers to pull the officer from his squad car, and two civilians from the other vehicle.

Simpson died about a half-hour later. The status of the two civilians was not available.

Almost immediately after word of the collision surfaced, scores of officers, police brass and city officials - including Mayor Nutter - made their way to Temple to grieve, to comfort themselves and the officer's family, and to brief reporters.

The crash came a little more than two months after Officer Isabel Nazario was fatally injured in a crash with a stolen sports-utility vehicle in West Philadelphia. The SUV was driven by a 16-year-old boy who was later charged with third-degree murder.

That crash, at 39th and Wallace Streets on Sept. 5, produced a similar outpouring by police, officials and reporters, but on that occasion at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

This year has been one of the deadliest on record for the department.

It began with the shooting of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski on May 3. He was gunned down May 3 at Almond and Schiller Streets while confronting suspects who had just held up a bank.

That murder was followed by the Nazario's death, and the Sept. 23 point-blank shooting of Officer Patrick McDonald while going after a suspect near 17th and Dauphin Streets in North Philadelphia.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Light Posting,....

Sorry for the lack of witty bon mots from the TrekMedic, but a recent "intestinal bug" is proving harder to get rid of than expected and draining the energy right out of me. Hopefully, this week will be a turn-around.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Was This the Change Obama Wanted?

Barack Obama's election is both an astounding political victory -- and the end of an era for black politics.

It is not even 50 years since a group of civil-rights workers challenged racial segregation on interstate bus travel. In 1961, a scared group of young Freedom Riders got on a Greyhound bus in Washington, D.C., to take a trip through Virginia and into the South. In Alabama the bus was bombed, its riders beaten so badly that some suffered brain damage. Attorney General Robert Kennedy worried that racial tensions could spark a second Civil War.

(snip)

And now comes Barack Obama, the son of a black Kenyan who came here as a scholarship student and his white American wife. There is no other nation in the world where a 75% majority electorate has elected as their supreme leader a man who identifies as one of that nation's historically oppressed minorities.

The idea of black politics now tilts away from leadership based on voicing grievance, and identity politics based on victimization and anger. In its place is an era in which it is assumed that talented, tough people of any background will find a way to their rightful seat of power in mainstream political life.

The Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons and Rev. Jeremiah Wrights remain. But their influence and power fade to a form of nostalgia in a world of larger political agendas, such as a common American vision of setting the nation on a steady economic course and dealing with terrorists. The market has irrevocably shrunk for Sharpton-style tirades against "the man" and "the system." The emphasis on racial threats and extortion-like demands -- all aimed at maximizing white guilt as leverage for getting government and corporate money -- has lost its moment. How does anyone waste time on racial fantasies like reparations for slavery when there is a black man who earned his way into the White House?

The TrekMedic ponders:

So, now that race has been taken off the table in American politics, will the supporters of Barack Obama be able to withstand the man who could very well be his political polar opposite: Michael Steele? Or will they throw more Oreos at him (more here)for choosing the "wrong party?" Obama better look over his should every hour of every day he serves as President.

Why We Still Vote for Our Leaders

Monday, November 10, 2008

Arrrghh! A Meme!

-Starting a new job after a LONG stint on the unemployment line -Starting on my degree -Already getting sick of Y2K hysteria -Watching Clinton's immigration policies deport my girlfriend -Buying my first new computer

5 Things on My To-Do List Today

-Lose weight -Go to the Chester County MAC meeting -File my paid bills for the month -Buy some new shirts for a funeral and a party -Vacuum

Saturday, November 08, 2008

The Pit Bull Snarls Again

Sarah Palin may be back in ice cold Alaska, but new polling data shows she's red hot in the hearts of Republicans, as more than two-thirds want her to be the presidential nominee in 2012.

After getting the polling boost, Palin showed her pit-bull side yesterday by blasting her detractors as "cowards" and "jerks" who spread lies behind her back.

Palin's angry words came in response to anonymous GOP insiders who claimed she's blundering numbskull, unaware that Africa was a continent and ignorant of the countries that signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"I consider it cowardly" that they stayed anonymous, she said.

"If there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA, and about the continent vs. the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context," she said.

"That's cruel, It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It's not fair, and it's not right."

She also slammed critics who ripped her allegedly diva-like behavior, including amassing a $150,000 wardrobe during the campaign with party money.

"I never asked for anything more than a Diet Dr. Pepper once in a while," she said, returning to the Alaska Governor's Office.

"Those are the RNC's clothes. They're not my clothes. I never forced anybody to buy anything."

But the insults have apparently done little to harm her image with the party faithful.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll said 64 percent of GOP voters would support a White House run for Palin in 2012. Sixty-nine percent believe she helped the 2008 GOP White House ticket as John McCain's running mate.

Only 20 percent said she hurt the ticket. Meanwhile, 71 percent said McCain made the right choice by choosing the 44-year-old governor as his running mate.

Moreover, 91 percent of Republicans have a positive view of Alaska's governor. And 65 percent said they intensely like her.

While firing up the GOP base, she turned off other voters who believed she lacked experience to serve in the White House. For example, 57 percent of independents and 81 percent of Democrats had an unfavorable view of her.

"While Palin's high favorables suggest she had a bright political future in the Republican Party," pollster Scott Rasmussen said, "it is important to note that favorites four years out from a presidential election quite often do not get the nomination."

Campaign insiders told The Post that some of the top decision makers around McCain - including those who recommended Palin for the ticket - are now trying to salvage their own reputations by scapegoating her for the defeat.

"There's an element of 'CYA' - cover your ass - going on here," said one source.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Ch-ch-changes

OK,..so the other day, I was pondering the future of the Red November 2008 blog.

Well,...after considering bicarb (its a paramedic joke,..), I've decided to change the name of the blog to "Republican SpyGlass."

The mission: as the name says, we'll keep an eye on and document the foibles and fumbles of the liberal-dominated 2008 -2010 Congress. Since we know the MSM will conveniently "forget" Nancy and Harry's screw-ups come November 2010, this will be a warehouse full (we hope) of useful information against the enemy!

In his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama wrote: "I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views."

On Tuesday, that proved to be a prophecy. But now his actions and deeds - his inevitable choices - will fill the screen.

Will he govern as a screen on which Congress' liberal Democratic majority will project its views, like President Bill Clinton in 1993 and 1994? Or will the views of center-left America fill the screen, as happened with Clinton from 1995 to 2000?

In other words, will Obama be led to the left by Congress, or will he lead in a more moderate direction?

If he is led, our economy will struggle under greater taxes on investors and higher-income workers. Government would take ownership of automakers. Federal domestic spending would explode. Employees of small businesses would get Medicaid-like government health insurance, paid for by taxing their employers.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Red November Initiative, the After-Action Report

Well, gentle readers, another election has come and gone. The RNI2008 blog is still up for now and I'm debating what to do next with the blogspace. I may delete it. I may change it over to an all anti-Obama blog, if the will is out there.

But for now, I want to thank everyone who contributed to the blog this time around.

I especially want to thank Doug V. Gibbs for his tireless cheerleading on his BlogTalkRadio shows and to Marie for sending me each and every one of her Two Cents that mattered.

The 2008 RNI group of bloggers far outshone the 2006 bunch and hopefully the growth will continue in 2010 or 2012.

The Morning After,...

OK,...we all know what happened last night. Despite the punditry, history was made last night and we should all feel better about it. Now, if only America can start looking at the likes of people like Michael Steele, JC Watts and Thomas Showells the same way,...

And a congratulations to President-elect Obama for being a gentleman enough to acknowledge Senator McCain's lengthy record of service to his country and his status as both a veteran and war hero.

So,..what next? The obvious answer is beat Obama at his own game. Organize grassroots better. Fund the process better. Get the message out better. AND STAY ON POINT!

Where does it start? For us Pennsylvanians, its starts at the local levels, as always. 2010 is already on the horizon and the opportunity to eject the likes of Fast Eddie Rendell and his ilk is ours to lose.

While we're at it, RINO Senator Specter MUST GO!

And how to go about this? Start at the top in Pennsylvania: PA Republican Chairman Robert A. Gleason, Jr MUST GO! In an election where Pennsylvanians were labelled racist, bible-clutching, gun-toting, xenophobic rednecks by a man who's platform would obliterate the burgeoning resurgence of our coal industry to answer to The Cult of Algore, how could Obama possibly have won in such a landslide?? The standard excuse of Philly- and Pittsburgh-area liberals dominating the election doesn't account for all of it. Someone dropped the ball and that someone is Gleason!

The clock has been rewound and we're already running out of time! More on this later, but visit my friends Lisa "Bluftooni" Blossie, Bill "Writemarsh" Shaw and the rest of usfor more ideas!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Just a Reminder,....

Asking for Prayers

NO! Not for the reasons you might think, but I'll get this request in before "The Obamessiah" bans religion on the internet!

Anyway, this weekend brought about an abundeance of bad health news in the Trek Family.

First, Friend O' Trek Cpl Dave Toms, USMC - his father was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer. The good news was that it hadn't spread. The bad news was he underwent significant abdominal surgery, including the removal of his spleen and most of his stomach.

If that wasn't enough, last week, Dave's mother was driving his father to the hospital for a follow up due to an on-going infection. While driving to the hospital, some asshat blew a FOUR-WAY stop sign and T-boned the Toms-mobile! Mrs. Toms is in a trauma center with bilateral hip fractures, rib fractures and a concussion. She's looking at a LONG recovery road. Mr.Toms in back in the ICU and the outlook is not too encouraging.

Next, you'll remember the Trek-partner, Medic Mike (formerly of Orbs of Confusion before going to the darkside of MySpace). His father-in-law received a new heart today and is in critical condition. Mrs. Mike says he was thumbs-up after the surgery.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

We Can Only Have the Audacity to Hope,...

THERE are profound reasons to believe the McCain-Palin ticket offers a better future for most Americans than the Obama-Biden ticket.

Barack Obama is a very smart and sophisticated liberal who will appoint activist, left-wing judges to the courts. The Ninth Circuit Court ruled that saying "one nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. Imagine this anti-religious extremism spreading through the rest of the court system in a wave of Obama appointments.

John McCain can be expected to appoint judges who respect the vital role that religion has histori cally played in American public life.

Beyond the courts, Obama would strengthen and expand opportunities for trial lawyers to sue. McCain would focus on litigation reform to reduce the number of lawsuits.

In a bad economy, McCain would focus on economic growth and job creation. Obama has promised to focus on "spreading your wealth."

Watching the ACORN organization come under investigation in more than a dozen states for voter fraud and illegality, it is sobering to imagine what Obama, a former ACORN trainer and community organizer, would do to give even more of our tax money to this hard-left, corrupt organization. It is also unlikely an Obama Justice Department would prosecute any of the donor-fraud and voter-fraud allegations that are rapidly building up.

Far from protecting our liberty here at home, an Obama administration will join its union allies in stripping us of our right to a secret ballot when voting on whether to join a union, a right that protects us from being browbeaten and coerced by labor organizers who wish to unionize. John McCain can be counted on to protect that right.

Union dominance under Obama will make it much harder to pass school-choice legislation, enact merit pay for good teachers or dismiss bad teachers. The William Ayers connection is a useful warning about the left-wing education propaganda likely to spread through our schools to brainwash our children under an Obama administration.

The recent stories about Obama's friendship with apologists for terrorism are a reminder that we really do not know how radical an Obama administration would be. We do know he has promised to meet with every dictator and anti-American regime. McCain's record on these issues is far sounder.

Finally, on the vice presidency, it is revealing that no national network TV interviewer asked Gov. Sarah Palin about her experiences as governor; her experience writing an $11 billion state budget; her experience leading the 29,000 employees of the Alaskan state government; her experience negotiating a big deal with ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and the rest of Big Oil; her success in giving the money from that negotiation to the people of Alaska as a $1,300 tax cut for every man, woman and child in the state; or her experience in negotiating a natural-gas pipeline that is the biggest civil-construction project in North America, and which three former governors failed to get done.

Contrast the elite media's refusal to ask about Gov. Palin's genuine achievements with their equally clear refusal to pursue Sen. Joe Biden when he has been just plain wrong. The most comical example was Biden's claim that we could go with him to Katie's restaurant to learn about the problems of the middle class. Barely any attention was given to the fact that Katie's restaurant closed in 1986. No elite reporter asked whether Biden had not learned about the middle class since 1986 or whether he is simply out of touch with reality. Between Biden and Palin, I would take Palin any day.

For these reasons and more, the McCain-Palin ticket would lead to a much better future for America than Obama-Biden.

Newt Gingrich, speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, is the author of "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less."